


Intrepid

by Moonlight_Jasmine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: 8-yrs-old, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Best Friends, Brief depiction of violence, Friendship, Gen, Kid Fic, More like in defence, Tom & Harry are best friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 19:10:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14408682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moonlight_Jasmine/pseuds/Moonlight_Jasmine
Summary: Where Harry's exploration of nearby woods along with Tom, on a summer morning, takes a completely unexpected turn.





	Intrepid

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and its affiliation in any format. It belongs to J. K. Rowling and not me.

“Ow!”  
“Stay still. I told you not to move.”  
“Please, make it fast”, said Harry Potter, as he opened his watery eyes to gaze into Tom’s.  
“Aha! There it is”, said Tom Riddle, as he held out a sharp thorn for Harry to look at. “One out, three more to go”, he said as he got working again.

It was a warm summer morning and Harry and Tom decided to explore the woods near their home. The idea was mainly Harry’s but Tom decided to tag along to keep Harry safe (and no one could resist Harry’s sad puppy eyes). Yet, Harry had somehow managed to fall into a thorny bush and pricked his hand.  
The 8-year-old, trouble magnet tried valiantly to hide his hurt but ultimately failed as a tear dripped down his slightly chubby cheek. He hastily wiped it on his shoulder sleeve, but Tom, the ever observant, noticed it and said, “I’ll be real quick this time. Just try to be still.”

After getting the thorns out and wrapping Harry’s hand in a handkerchief, Harry asserted that they had a lot more to explore before they went home. Tom rolled his eyes, affectionately, as he followed Harry’s lead. Soon, they came by a big pond, where they got in to swim. “Tommy, look over there.” “Hmm, what? Oh! my”, said Tom, as he carefully lifted a grass snake from the water and slowly ran his hand along its beautiful, olive green back. The snake curled around his wrist basking in his body warmth.

Snakes had been Tom’s fascination, since they were young. He had many books on all kinds of snakes, back home. It was somewhat mysterious, how Tom and snakes attracted each other’s attention whenever around each other. He even had many snake plushies back at home. While his mother shared his interest, Tom’s father found them disgusting. Actually, his father found everything disgusting. At least, that is what the boy thought. Young Tom’s charm, (cuteness), wit, intelligence, did nothing on him, usually.  
Harry and Tom played and splashed around in the water for a while. They were quite having fun and enjoying and hence, did not hear someone approach them.

“Finally found you, little runt”, came a gruff voice from a stranger as he moved towards them. Surprised, they turned around to find a burly, mad looking man, rags-clad, approaching them, though limping slightly. Realization flashed across Tom’s face and he replied, “What are you doing here? Get lost. Didn’t my father teach you a mighty lesson already? Still, you dare.”  
“My, my, is that how young men greet their uncles these days? Where are those manners of yours?” asked Morfin Gaunt as he came closer. The children quickly swam to the ground and got ready to run. “You won’t be getting away. Those rascal father and blood traitor mother of yours have caused my family and me a great loss and you shall pay for it. I have already lost my job because of him. In return, I am going to hurt his son, bloody”, hissed Morfin as he quickly followed them. The children gasped when they heard bad words coming from a grown man’s mouth.

Morfin might have had a limp, but that did not deter his thirst for revenge. Moreover, he used his strength as an advantage to reach the children quickly. He suddenly thrust his hand to catch Tom. Seeing this, Tom ducked down and narrowly escaped, but the same could not be said about poor Harry, who now was unfortunately held in Morfin’s tightly gripping hands.  
Quickly, Tom did the only thing that flashed to him; he thrust the snake on his hand towards the insane man. Badly startled, the grass snake, in defense mode, inflated its body and attacked the nearest thing it could reach with its head- Morfin’s hand. Startled by the sudden sharp pain that invaded his hand, his grip slackened, causing Tom to seize the opportunity to take Harry’s hand away. The children grabbed their clothes, backpack that they had left on the nearby tree earlier, and ran back towards their home.

After a while, they stopped near a tree panting heavily, gulping lungs full of air. Poor Harry, by now, had a large hand-shaped bruise on his already slightly injured hand and tears running down his angel like face. His adventure had taken a bad turn and he was shocked, scared and in a bit of pain. The kids quickly moved to put on their clothes. Just as they got ready to run again, seemingly out of nowhere, a hand grabbed Tom, and violently pinned him against the tree trunk. 

“Thought I would let you run away, did you, little fools? You’ll pay for what you did”, said Morfin as he glanced towards his bruising hand. Still high on adrenaline, Harry did the only thing he could. Finding a broken branch nearby, he lifted it up, closed his eyes and swung it as hardly as he could. The sharp end of the branch struck and pierced Morfin in his back causing the man to let go of Tom, as he choked in pain. Then the man tried to turn and pry the branch off Harry. Harry though, held on to it stubbornly, forming a small tug of war albeit weaker pull from Morfin’s side. However, Harry pulled strongly, resulting Harry getting a long, slope lined, slightly deep gash on his small forehead, above his eye. This did not stop the young boy, though and frankly, he had had enough. Tearing the branch way from the man, he lifted it above his head and repeatedly hit the wicked man, until he fell down unconscious.  
Finally, out of his adrenaline high, Harry looked down at the passed out man in shock. Tom, though, recovered quickly and began pulling Harry away. “Come Harry, come. You’re hurt. Let’s quickly go home and inform the police before he wakes up again. Come on Harry, we gotta go. It’s alright.” Harry just nodded dazedly and let his Tommy pull him into a run.

 

Now sitting in front of the T.V along with Tom, the newly bandaged Harry drank hot chocolate with his friend, as they watched Harry’s favourite cartoon show.  
“Thank you Harry, for saving me. You were so brave”, said Tom as he gazed softly towards his best friend, his only true friend.  
Blushing red, Harry turned to Tom and bashfully said, “No, no, you saved me too. Thank you, Tommy. It was so cool- the way you sicced the snake on him” and giggled softly. Tom chuckled along with him.  
The police had taken Morfin away when Tom’s father lodged a complaint against the man, when he had caught the sight of two bruised- with one having blood running down his face- and scared boys. He managed to extract the whole story from them and sent them into the Riddle mansion to Mrs. Riddle to be patched up. He proceeded to call Mrs. Potter and informed her of the incident.  
Later, the children received an earful from their worried mothers for running into the woods to explore, without informing any of the adults. Then they proceeded to hug and cuddle their children to assure themselves of their children’s safety. On hearing the news, Harry’s father though, complimented on their bravery and claimed that they must have got it from him, causing Mrs. Potter to roll her eyes, fondly.

Harry and Tom shared a secret smile and continued to watch the T.V show.

**Author's Note:**

> I dedicate this work to my wonderful brothers who are so kind and helpful to me.


End file.
